Sudanese may be fighting in Iraq
07/04/2003 22:38 - (SA)
Khartoum - Sudanese volunteers could be fighting alongside Iraqis against US and British forces, Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail admitted on Monday.
He told reporters that of the estimated 6 000 Sudanese working in Iraq before the war started last month, only a third had returned home.
The other 4 000 are ones with "political leanings," he said, implying they were members of the national Baath party, which has links to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's ruling party of the same name.
He said they may have preferred to stay in the country to back Iraqi forces "in repulsing the aggression."
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said last week that more than 6 000 volunteers had reached Iraq from the Arab world, echoing earlier statements from senior Iraqi officials.
US officers also revealed they had found Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudis and Syrians fighting alongside Iraqi troops, using tactics including suicide bombings. Other reports have come in from Cairo to Stockholm of Arabs volunteering to join the battle in Iraq.
Ismail also said that he no longer had any contact with the Iraqi foreign ministry since the Sudanese ambassador in Baghdad, like most other envoys, had left the capital.
However, he maintained that relations with the country were "good," and noted that Iraq's ambassador was still in Khartoum.
He also confirmed that President Omar al-Beshir would leave for Cairo on Tuesday for talks with his counterpart Hosni Mubarak which would include the impact of the Iraq war on their countries.
news24.com |
